Problems that crop up intermittently in writing,
often referred to as "faulty mechanics" by English teachers,
might be thought of as sporadic or intermittent noise. It tends to occur
occasionally, rather than affect every page the way a poor choice of type
size or confused organization of material might. Of course enough sporadic
noise in a document, such as repeated misspellings or numerous sentence
fragments, can easily turn into constant noise and give your reader an
impression of hastily and carelessly produced work undeserving of the response
or feedback you want.

To help you eliminate sporadic noise this guide looks at where it
is most likely to occur in spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and
technical usage. We also give some pointers on how to edit your writing
in order to remove this kind of noise.

SPELLING AND SPELL CHECKERS

You might think the spell checkers that come with most word processing
software have eliminated any need to be a careful speller. Unfortunately
this is not the case. With apologies to Shakespeare we took his words "A
rose by any other name would smell as sweet," and ran them through
a spell checker as A nose by any outer dame wood small as sweat.
No red flags were raised by the program. Nor will spell checkers catch
common errors such as confusing there for their, or to
for too. Some typographical errors simple give you other words which
will pass unnoticed, as in this sentence. A very slight slip of the finger
on the keyboard can make the difference between asking for some forms to
be mailed to you or nailed to you. A quick transposition could render a
memorandum nuclear rather than simply unclear.

At best, the effect of poor spelling on your readers is a sense of annoyance,
or at least of having their attention distracted by something other than
what you want to communicate. At worst, noise created by spelling glitches
can bring readers to a stop and cause them to seriously question your ability
as a writer. They might even suspect that a person who is careless with
spelling could also be inept in more critical technical matters.

To reduce or eliminate any noise in your writing caused by incorrect
spelling, use a spell checker but also have a standard dictionary nearby.
A current dictionary is the only resource that can reliably answer questions
such as

whether there is more than one way to spell a word, or what the accepted
plural forms of words such as appendix or matrix are

how words like well-known or so-called are hyphenated,
or whether a computer is on-line or online

whether it is appropriate to write about FORTRAN,Fortran,
or fortran

what the difference between British and American spelling or usage
might be

what the accepted past tense is of recent verbs that have come into
technical English such as input

It is especially important for an engineer to use a current dictionary.
English is a dynamic language, and the language of science and technology
changes even more rapidly as knowledge increases and devices are developed.
You won't find words like software, modem, and LED
in a dictionary from the 1950s, and since then older words such as bug,
hardware, interface, and even mouse have taken on
new meanings. Some usage has yet to be decided on: Would a computer shop
advertise that it repairs mice or mouses? Do you send e-mail,E-mail, or email? (Right now all three options are used.)

PUNCTUATION

Would you want to drive on a busy highway or in a city where there were
no traffic signs? Controlling the flow of traffic is vital if anyone is
to get anywhere. Similarly, within sentences the flow of meaning is controlled
by punctuation marks, the conventionally agreed-upon "traffic signals"
of written communication. We do the same thing in spoken language by means
of pitch, breath pauses, and emphasis. Directing the flow of ideas in writing
is not really difficult, and a useful procedure when you're unsure of how
to punctuate a sentence might be to say it aloud as in normal conversation.
Pay careful attention to where you pause naturally within the sentence-that
is likely to be where you need some punctuation.

Many detailed guides to punctuation exist, and you may want to look
at them if you have a lot of queries in this area. You will also find excellent
advice on punctuation in the front or back sections of some standard college
dictionaries. Meanwhile, the following suggestions are offered on the most
common problems many engineers tend to have with punctuation.

Commas

Confusion sometimes exists about commas because frequently their use
is optional. Before we arrived at the meeting we had already decided
how to vote would be written with a comma after meeting by some
and not by others. The question to ask is, Does adding or omitting a comma
in a given sentence create noise? In general, if no possible confusion
or strain results, the tendency in technical writing is to omit unessential
commas.

Often, omitting a comma after introductory words or phrases in a sentence
will cause your reader to be momentarily confused-as you would have been
if there were no comma after the first word of this sentence. Here are
further examples of missing commas causing noise:

After the construction workers finished eating rats emerged to look
for the scraps.

In all the containers were in good condition considering the rough
journey.

As you can see the efficiency peaks around 10-12%.

If an acoustic horn has a higher throat impedance within a certain
frequency range it will act as a filter in that range which is undesirable.

Solution

After the construction workers finished eating, rats emerged to look
for the scraps.

In all, the containers were in good condition considering the rough
journey.

As you can see, the efficiency peaks around 10-12%..

If an acoustic horn has a higher throat impedance within a certain
frequency range, it will act as a filter in that range, which is undesirable.

Again, try saying these sentences aloud with their intended meaning.
You'll find you put the comma-or pause-where it belongs almost without
thinking.

One more point about commas: most technical editors prefer what is called
a "serial comma" when you list words or ideas within a sentence,
as in The serial comma has become practically mandatory in most scientific,
technical, and legal writing. You may have been told that the and
joining the last two terms replaces the need for a comma, but this is not
so in technical writing. See how the serial comma is useful in the following
sentences by reading them aloud and noting how you need the pause before
the and:

Fresnel's equations determine the reflectance, transmittance, phase,
and polarization of a light beam at any angle of incidence.

Tomorrow's engineers will have to be able to manage information overload,
communicate skillfully, and employ a computer as an extension of themselves.

A serial comma may also prevent confusion:

Rathjens, Technobuild, Johnson and Turblex build the best turbines
for our purposes.

Unless Johnson and Turblex is the name of one company, you will
need a serial comma:

Rathjens, Technobuild, Johnson, and Turblex build the best turbines
for our purposes.

Parentheses

Parentheses are used to set off facts or references in your writing-almost
like a quick interjection in speech:

Resistor R5 introduces feedback in the circuit (see Figure 5).

This reference book (published in 1993) contains up-to-date information.

If what you place within parentheses is not a complete sentence, put
any required comma or period outside the parentheses:

Typical indoor levels of radon average 1.5 picocuries per liter (a
measure of radioactivity per unit volume of air).

Whenever I design a circuit (like this one), I determine the values
of the components in advance.

If your parenthetical material forms a complete sentence, put the period
inside the marks:

I have already calculated the values of the resistors. (R1 is 10.5
K_, and R2 is 98 _.) The next step is to choose standard values.

Remember, it is best not to use parenthetical material too frequently
since these marks force your readers to pause, and are likely to distract
them (if only for a brief moment-see what we mean?) from the main intent
of your writing.

Dash

A dash will make a sentence seem more emphatic by calling attention
to the words set aside or after it: He was tall, handsome, rich-and
stupid. Since the dash is considered less formal than the other parenthetical
punctuation marks (parentheses and commas), you should try to avoid it
in very formal writing. If you overuse it, you are in danger of calling
wolf too often, and your dashes will lose their effect. With this caution
in mind, you may still find dashes helpful for the following purposes:

Emphasis:

Staying up all night to finish a lab project is not so terrible-once
in a while.

Summary:

Reading all warnings, wearing safety glasses and hardhats, and avoiding
hot materials-all these practices are crucial to sensible workshop procedure.

Insertion:

My opinion-whether you want to hear it or not-is that the drill does
not meet the specifications promised by our supplier.

Notice we are talking about what is called the "em" dash here-the
dash used between words that practically touches the letters at each end
of it. The "en" dash is shorter, more like a hyphen, and used
when you cite ranges of numbers: 31-34; $350-400. Most word processing
programs allow you to choose whichever you need.

Colon

Colons are used to separate the hour and minute in a time notation and
to divide parts of the title of a book or article:

This proposal is due on Monday morning at 8:30 sharp.

One of the books recommended for the seminar is The Limits of
Safety: Organization, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons.

The most common use of the colon within a sentence, however, is to introduce
an informal list:

For the final exam you will need several items: a pencil, a calculator,
and three sheets of graph paper.

You can also use a colon to introduce an illustration or example, as
we did in the sentence leading into the above example. Note, however, that
in both cases an independent clause-a statement that can stand by itself
and have meaning-comes before the colon. You should not write the
example sentence as

For the final exam you will need: a pencil, a calculator, and three
sheets of graph paper,

because what comes before the colon makes no sense by itself and a colon
needlessly interrupts the flow of the sentence. Instead write

For the final exam you will need a pencil, a calculator, and three
sheets of graph paper.

(Note how the same reasoning made us lead into the last two illustrations
with no colon after the words ". . . example sentence as" and
"Instead write. . . .")

Hyphens

Hyphens have been called the most under-used punctuation marks in technical
writing. Omitting them can sometimes create real noise, as when we read
coop (an enclosure for poultry or rabbits) but discover that co-op
was meant. On the other hand, a hyphen sometimes appears where it is unneeded,
as in re-design or sub-question.

Unfortunately, apart from the general rule that hyphens should be used
to divide a word at the end of a line or to join pairs of words acting
as a single descriptor-as in The transistor is a twentieth-century invention-there
is no clear consensus on when to use them. You'll often have to decide
for yourself with the help of a recent dictionary, but here are some suggestions:

Don't hyphenate prefixes such as pre-, re-, semi-,
and sub- unless leaving out a hyphen causes an eyesore or possible
confusion. Preconception is fine, but preexisting needs a
hyphen if only for looks. The same might be said of antiinflationary
or ultraadaptable. You may have to distinguish between recover
(regain) and re-cover (to put a new cover on) and the like at times.
Again, a good dictionary will help.

Don't hyphenate compound words before a noun when the first one ends
in ly. For instance early warning system needs no hyphen
since it is clear that early modifies warning, not system.
The same applies to optimally achieved goals, highly sensitive
cameras, and similar constructions.

Stay alert for sentences in which you can eliminate noise by adding
one or more hyphens. As you can see, each of the following benefits from
the insertion of hyphens at a critical point:

We used a 16 key keypad.

We used a 16-key keypad.

We knew Marienet made klystrons would be able to generate a 9.395
GHz microwave.

We knew Marienet-made klystrons would be able to generate a 9.395 GHz

microwave.

The equation assumes a one dimensional plane wave propagation inside
the

horn.

The equation assumes a one-dimensional plane-wave propagation inside
the

horn.

Research showed the computer aided students improved their grades
dramatically.

Research showed the computer-aided students improved their grades

dramatically.

With really complex technical terms you may have very little to go on
regarding hyphens. For instance, how do you punctuate direct axis transient
open circuit time constant? The best solution (direct-axis transient
open-circuit time constant) may only be found in a technical dictionary
or by observing what the common practice is among specialists in the field.

Exclamation Point

The best advice on the exclamation point is to use it all you want in
your novel or letters, but avoid it in professional writing except in the
case of warnings (DANGER: Sodium Cyanide is extremely toxic!). Since
engineering documents seek to convey information, any excitement or triumph
should be generated by the facts provided in the document rather than by
a tagged-on marker. Occasionally an exclamation mark might even be interpreted
by your readers as condescending or sarcastic:

We soon found that the previous data was unsubstantiated!

After reading your report, I feel you might benefit from our on-site
course in technical writing!

Quotation Marks

Use quotation marks to set off direct quotations in your text, and put
any needed period or comma within them, even if the quoted item is only
one word. Although British publishers use different guidelines, the American
practice is to always put commas and periods inside quotes, and semicolons
and colons outside, as in the following:

The manager stressed to the whole group that the key word was "Preparedness."

"The correct answer is 18.2 Joules," he told me.

We had heard about the "Four-Star Marketing Plan," but
no one remembered what it involved.

We left the game right after the band played "The Eyes of Texas";
it was too hot and humid to stay any longer.

If you have to quote material that takes up more than two lines, set
it off from your text by a space and indent it from both right and left
margins. You might even use a slightly smaller font size, and should omit
the quotation marks, as shown here:

Usually, specifications are not written from beginning
to end by a single person. Instead, the lead engineer delegates the writing
of numerous sections to specialists, who may not be aware of the overall
goals of the project, and may have parochial views about certain requirements.
The lead engineer is faced with the difficult task of fitting all these
pieces together, finding all the places where they may conflict, and adjusting
them to be correct and consistent with each other [NAWCTSD Technical Report
93-022, p.11].

Semicolon

Whether we like it or not, the semicolon seems to be disappearing from
much engineering writing. Often it is replaced by a comma, which is an
error according to traditional punctuation rules. More frequently we simply
use a period and start a new sentence, but then a psychological closeness
might be lost. Look at these two examples:

Your program is working well, however mine is a disaster.

Take Professor Hixson's class. You'll find he's a great teacher.

The relationship between these statements could be better stressed by
using a semicolon:

Your program is working well; however, mine is a disaster.

Take Professor Hixson's class; you'll find he's a great teacher.

Perhaps one reason we don't see many semicolons in engineering writing
is that fewer and fewer people feel confident using them. Another possibility
is that little noise results from using a comma or a period and new sentence,
as in the examples above. Note this pair of sentences:

We wanted to finish the computer program yesterday; however, the
network was down all afternoon.

We wanted to finish the computer program yesterday, however, the
network was down all afternoon.

Although the first sentence would be considered correct and the second
wrong, you will find plenty of examples of the second punctuation around.
The main problem in the second sentence is that a reader can't be sure
at first whether however "belongs" to the first half of
the sentence or the second. A semicolon after yesterday is really
needed to make this clear. If you frequently use words like however,
therefore, namely, consequently, and accordingly
to link what could otherwise be two sentences, insert a semicolon before
and a comma after them. You'll find this will add a shade of meaning that
cannot be achieved otherwise.

Use semicolons to separate a series of short statements listed in a
sentence if any one of the statements contains internal punctuation. The
semicolon will then divide the larger elements:

I suggest you choose one social science subject, such as psychology
or philosophy; one natural science course, such as chemistry, physics,
or biology; and one math class.

The team is made up of Seth Deleery, vice-president of marketing;
Mac Hines, director of research; Ruth Ustby, assistant director of training
and human relations; and Leo Little, chief avionics engineer.

SENTENCE SENSE

As engineering writers our aim is to convey information with a minimum
of noise. For our purposes the only important "rule" of grammar
is to eliminate noise so that the decoder (reader) of the text (message)
receives precisely the message the encoder (writer) intends. Thus it's
worth looking at those grammatical and stylistic areas where noise often
seems to occur in engineering writing. Two persistent but outmoded grammar
rules you can safely forget are also discussed in this section under the
heading of "Some Latin Legacies."

Connecting Subjects to Verbs

It's unlikely you would write The machines is broken without
quickly noticing a discrepancy between the subject (machines) and
the verb (is). A problem can occur, however, when several words
come between your subject and verb and you forget how you started the sentence.
If you are writing in a hurry and leave no time for editing, you might
produce something like this:

This combination of electrical components constitute
a single pole RC filter.

A 35 mm film of some high buildings are strongly recommended.

Only one of the pre-1925 high-rise structures were
damaged in the quake.

Those plural nouns that follow later (components, buildings, structures)
can sometimes mislead us into relating the verb to them rather than to
the earlier nouns (combination, film, one) to which
they belong. This danger increases with the length of a sentence and the
amount of information intervening between the true subject and verb of
a sentence. A good style or grammar program on your word processor may
help prevent this from happening, but it is just as well to be alert to
the danger.

Sometimes a question arises in engineering writing with units of measurement.
Do you write Twelve ounces of adhesive were added or Twelve ounces
of adhesive was added? How about 12 grams of acid was spilled or
12 grams of acid were spilled?

The answer is a matter of logic rather than grammar. Even though we're
alluding to several ounces or grams here, we "see" them as one
unit, and thus the singular verb is preferable. Little or no noise is created,
however, if you slip up on this one.

Using either/or in a sentence occasionally makes us stop and
think. Look at this sentence:

Either the old manual or the recent procedures (is/are?) acceptable.

Which verb should we use? Since a verb is normally controlled by the
noun immediately before it, we would write Either the old manual or
the recent procedures are acceptable. Following this practice
we could also write

Either the recent procedures or the old manual is acceptable.

It is best to follow the same rule with neither/nor. Thus the
following two sentences would be preferred:

Neither the engineers nor their supervisor was invited to
the planning conference.

Neither the rudder nor the wings were badly damaged in the crash.

Modifiers

A modifier is a word or group of words whose function is to add meaning
to other ideas in a sentence. If you say your company has bought a transceiver,
you have certainly conveyed some meaning, but if you say Our company
has bought a TS 840 S transceiver with single sideband capabilities,
you add a lot of meaning to the word transceiver by adding some
modifiers.

The danger lies in creating noise by misplacing the modifiers in a sentence.
Such distortion can produce sentences that don't make sense or that make
sense in the wrong way. Misplaced modifiers occur when a reader gets the
wrong impression (or no impression) of who is doing what in a sentence.
This is frequently because words like "I" or "we "
or "the engineers" or some other subject has been omitted. Consider
the following:

Jumping briskly into the saddle, the horse galloped across the prairie.

After testing the mechanism, the theory was easily understood.

Once having completed needed modifications and adjustments, the equipment
operated correctly and met all specifications.

If we look at these statements logically we have a horse that rides,
a theory that can test a circuit, and equipment that modifies and adjusts.
This is not likely to be what the writer meant. Revising the last two sentences
might result in the following:

Once the team had completed needed modifications and adjustments,
the equipment operated correctly and met all specifications.

After testing the mechanism we easily understood the theory.

Meanwhile, another problem can crop up if you place a modifier too far
from the word or idea it modifies:

I was ordered to get there as soon as possible by fax.

By the age of four her father knew she would be an engineer.

It's not hard to remedy the lack of logic in these sentences and to
avoid traveling by fax or having four year old fathers, but sometimes the
meaning cannot be extracted, as in the following:

The tone-detector circuit was too unreliable to be used in our telephone
answering device, which was built of analog devices.

The sentence is correct if the telephone answering device is made of
analog devices, but much more likely the writer is concerned with the inaccuracies
of an analog tone-detector circuit. This is easily fixed:

The tone-detector circuit, which was built of analog devices, was
too unreliable to be used in our telephone answering device.

Parallelism

Parallelism refers to the need for items in a list to share the same
grammatical structure. Faulty parallelism creates noise because it violates
a sense of logical consistency. Rather than tell someone you like to
jog, wrestling, and play the fiddle, you would probably say you
like to jog, wrestle, and play the fiddle, or that you enjoy
jogging, wrestling, and playing the fiddle. But in longer
sentences there is a danger of losing control of this logic.

After a lot of discussion the team concluded that their alternatives
were to call in a consultant, thus increasing the cost of the project,
or having three more engineers reassigned to the team.

Note how this sentence reads as if the team's alternatives are (1) to
call in a consultant, and (2) having more engineers reassigned-two unparallel
statements that can grate on our sense of logical flow. The sentence can
be rewritten to state that the alternatives were to call in a consultant....or
to have three more engineers reassigned. See if you can recognize the
lack of parallelism in this sentence:

The back-up system should be efficient, should meet safety specifications,
and have complete reliability.

To make this statement parallel, think of the list embedded in it. We
are told that the back-up system

1. should be efficient

2. should meet safety specs

3. have complete reliability.

To be consistent, the sentence needs one more should-or one less:

The back-up system should be efficient, should meet safety specifications,
and should be completely reliable.

The back-up system should be efficient, meet safety specifications,
and be completely reliable.

This might seem like a rather fine point, but since a lack of parallelism
can often cause a reader to pause, if only subconsciously, it qualifies
as noise when it occurs in a sentence.

Fragments

Sentence fragments are partial statements that create noise because
they convey an incomplete unit of information. Here is an example:

She decided to major in petroleum engineering. Even though it would
take five years.

The first sentence makes sense by itself; try saying the second statement
alone, as an independent exclamation, and your listeners would be lost.
We must admit, however, that in everyday speech and popular journalism
you will find plenty of fragments which seem to cause little or no noise.
Look at this example:

Nearly 60 percent of U.S. households had VCRs by the end of the 1980s.
In spite of the microwave oven being the most popular appliance of the
decade.

We know what the writer means here, but strictly speaking the second
statement is a fragment because it could not stand alone and make sense.
The words In spite of indicate a contrastive relationship that is
clear only in the context of the first statement. It would be more efficient
to write

In spite of the microwave oven being the most popular appliance of
the 1980s, nearly 60 percent of U. S. households had VCRs by the end of
the decade.

In your formal engineering writing you would do well to avoid incomplete
sentences. They can usually be quite easily remedied, as you can see. Here's
another example:

Fragment:

Delays in the October shipments have occurred. Due to the strike.

Complete:

Delays in the October shipments have occurred due to the strike.

Better:

The October 6 shipments have been delayed by the strike.

or

The strike has delayed the October 6 shipments.

Active or Passive Voice?

As indicated in the last pair of sentences above, we can use two distinct
'voices' in English sentences. The active voice directly states that someone
does something, as in The engineer wrote the report. The passive
voice turns it around to The report was written by the engineer.
Thus the active voice emphasizes the performer of the action-the engineer,
in our example-while the passive emphasizes the recipient of the action,
the report.

Many engineering and scientific writers in the past have been advised
to leave themselves out of their writing. They might write It was ascertained
that. . . long before they would admit We made sure that. . .
. Chances are management would rather tell you It has been decided to
terminate your employment than We have decided to fire you. Perhaps
such hedging is necessary at times (it helps conceal responsibility), and
there is something to be said for "scientific objectivity," but
the natural form of the English sentence is the active voice. This form
is also the more efficient one. Look at the following pairs:

Control of the flow is provided by a DJ-12 valve.

A DJ-12 valve controls the flow.

A system for delineating these factors is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 shows a system for delineating these factors.

By switching off the motor when it started to vibrate andlooking
at the tachometer, the resonant frequency was determined.

We determined the resonant frequency by switching off the motor when
it started to vibrate and looking at the tachometer.

The use of the passive becomes especially burdensome in procedures or
instructions:

The button is pressed twice.

vs.

Press the button twice.

Previously entered data in the DataBase is eliminated by the Edit
menu being opened and Select All being chosen.

vs.

Eliminate previously entered data in the DataBase by opening the Edit
menu and choosing Select All.

Fortunately modern engineering writers are getting away from the rigid
use of the passive as they realize there is nothing dreadful about using
the active voice. Sentences become more vigorous, direct, and efficient
in the active form, and by showing that a person is involved in
the work, you are doing no more than admitting reality. Also, the active
voice gives credit where credit is due. If we read in a progress report
that several references were checked out from the library and 25 pages
of notes were taken, are we as impressed by the energy expended as
when we read I checked out several books from the library and took 25
pages of notes?

One danger of avoiding the active voice is that we can end up writing
some pretty absurd things:

Hurrying to complete the project, several wires got soldered together
incorrectly.

The supervisor was seen by us, and we were ignored by her.

Not every use of the passive is inadvisable, of course. Sometimes it
will give variety to your writing, and passive verbs can always be used
if the doer of an action is unknown or unimportant, or if what is being
done is simply more important than the doer:

Electricity was discovered thousands of years ago.

The bridge was torn down in 1992.

The contaminated material is then taken to a safe environment.

Perhaps the best policy is to use the active voice in your writing if
it seems the most natural and efficient way to express yourself, assuming
there is no company policy against its use (there is in some companies).

Sexist Language

Gender, or sex, is now only indicated in English by she /he,
his /hers, her /him, and by a small group of
words describing activities formerly pursued by one sex or the other, such
as mailman, stewardess, chairman, or seamstress. Now of course
men might bring the drinks on an airplane and women might deliver the mail,
not to mention take an equal place in the engineering workplace. Because
of this it is unnecessarily restrictive-and to some people offensive-to
use gender-specific terms in writing and speech unless there is good reason
to do so. The following pairs show how easy it is to reword your sentences
or paragraphs to include everyone they should:

Restrictive:

Every engineer should be at his workstation by 9 a.m.

Inclusive:

Every engineer should be at his or her workstation by 9 a.m.

or (preferred because less wordy):

Engineers should be at their workstations by 9 a.m.

Restrictive:

An employee can expect a lot of challenges during his career here.

Inclusive:

Employees can expect a lot of challenges during their careers here.

Restrictive:

Every technician must wear safety glasses when he enters the work
area.

Inclusive:

Technicians must wear safety glasses when entering the work area.

Most nouns indicating gender in English have already been modified to
be inclusive. A recent dictionary can guide you here. One title that still
sneaks through, however, especially in organizations traditionally dominated
by males, is chairman. If the "chairman" is female, is
she the chairwoman or chairperson? Both are acceptable, but it's probably
simpler to refer to anyone in such a position as chair:

Sarah is chair of the new committee on marketing strategy.

or

Sarah is chairing the new committee on marketing strategy.

Some Latin Legacies

A few grammar rules impressed upon us in the past really do not hold
up under careful linguistic or logical inspection. They were based on how
Latin works, rather than English. To put it another way, noise rarely occurs
when these rules are ignored. Here are the two main ones, together with
comments and a caution.

1. "Never End a Sentence with a Preposition. "

In reality a preposition is often the best word to end a sentence with.
(A purist might claim we should have just written . . . the best word
with which to end a sentence ). When an editor criticized Sir Winston
Churchill for doing so, Churchill responded with "Young man, this
is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put!" After all,
did you find any noise in the opening sentence of this paragraph? Efficient
writing sometimes dictates that we end a sentence with a preposition. Compare
the following pairs. You can see that in each case the first sample, ending
with a preposition, flows better and is more natural:

That's a problem that we will really have to work on.

That's a problem on which we will really have to work.

We must make sure we can find some engineering consultants we can
really count on.

We must make sure we can find some engineering consultants on whom
we can really count.

2. "Never Split an Infinitive. "

An infinitive is the form of a verb that combines with the word to,
as in to go, to work, or to think. Confident writers
have dared to deliberately split the infinitive whenever doing so
was in the best interests of clear writing. Certain TV space adventurers
have been daring to boldly go where the rest of us can't for a long
time now, and an electrician may find it necessary (and safer) to entirely
separate the wires in a power line sometimes. But don't overload a
split infinitive. If you put too much material between your to and
the rest of the verb, noise or even nonsense might result:

The team has been unable to, except for the lead engineer and one
technician who is on temporary assignment with us, master the new program.

Rewrite this as

Except for the lead engineer and one technician on temporary assignment
with us, the team has been unable to master the new program.

or

The team has been unable to master the new program-with the exception
of the lead engineer and one technician who is on temporary assignment
with us.

Transitions

Transitional words and phrases are signposts that show a reader the
way your thinking is going. They help connect ideas, distinguish conditions
or exceptions, or point out new directions of thought. Simple words like
therefore, thus,similarly, and unfortunately
eliminate ambiguity by helping a reader interpret your information. So
if you neglect transitions in your writing you create noise, since your
reader might miss some important connection. Look at these two sentences:

The group's long-range plans for the S-34B project have been extended.
The completion date for the project is as originally planned.

Both sentences are grammatically correct and contain important facts,
but can the reader tell how these facts are related? Now notice how the
next three illustrations indicate relationships the first example does
not:

The group's long-range plans for the S-34B project have been extended.
Nevertheless, the completion date for the project is as originally planned.

The group's long-range plans for the S-34B project have been extended.
Unfortunately, the completion date for the project is as originally planned.

Even though the group's long-range plans for the S-34B project have
been extended, the completion date for the project is as originally planned.

While facts are important, it is often the relationships between the
facts that create the whole picture. Thus you should make your transitions
and connections as strong as possible. Here are some examples:

The automotive airbag has proved to be a major factor in driver survival.
Moreover, the bag has generated considerable profits for its producers.

Sentence Length

When dealing with highly technical subjects you should rarely write
sentences over twenty words long. Technical material can be difficult enough
to follow without being presented in long, complex sentences, particularly
if your audience is less familiar with your field than you are. Even nontechnical
ideas are hard to grasp in an unnecessarily longwinded sentence:

We finally had a long discussion with the R & D staff but were
not able to convince them that they should commit to a specific date for
implementation of the design, but instead they responded with a proposal
to extend the project, which would result in a lot more work for all of
us and a considerable loss of profits for the company.

Nobody wants to be left breathless at the end of a mile-long sentence.
If you find your sentences tend to be lengthy, look for ways to break them
into two or more separate ones. The readability of your prose will be determined
partly by the length of your sentences. On the other hand, too many short
sentences may leave your readers feeling like first graders:

The Kw766XTR is a low-profile desktop scanner. It has outstanding
performance. It offers a frequency range of 29-54 and 108-174 MHz. It includes
50 memory channels. The design is sleek. Individual channels can be locked
out. They can also be delayed.

Try to vary your style and avoid both lengthy and abrupt sentences.
Remember, however, that very short sentences, used sparingly, can be effective
in helping you reinforce a point.

TECHNICAL USAGE

Useless Jargon

In its negative sense, jargon is pure noise since it refers to unintelligible
speech or writing. The word derives from a French verb meaning the twittering
of birds, and has a lot in common with "gobbledygook," first
used to compare the speech of Washington politicians to the gobbling of
Texas turkeys. High-tech jargon is sometimes known as techno-babble. Some
people seem to like to sprinkle their writing liberally with such impressive-sounding
phrases as integrated logistical programming, differential heterodyne
emission, or functional cognitive parameters. Unfortunately,
unless these words mean something to both writer and reader, no communication
takes place.

Techno-babble is so common that we have created an "electrotechnophrase
generator" to help addicts satisfy their habit. Select any three-digit
number and read off the corresponding words from the chart below; for example
we used 2-8-3 to get differential heterodyne emission. Readers may
have no idea of what you mean, but they should be impressed-or afraid to
ask for a meaning.

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

0. voltaic integrated simulation

1. Sholokhov's semiconductor algorithm

2. differential Yagi attenuator

3. Fourier scaled emission

4. transient Q-factor diode

5. virtual tracking parameters

6. phasor diffusion network

7. compound Doppler gate

8. thermal heterodyne transducer

9. Gaussian coaxial magnetron

How To Sound Like A Real Technocrat

Useful Jargon

In another sense, however, jargon is the necessary technical terminology
used in specialized fields. A chemist might use the term deoxyribose
around a group of peers without feeling a need to explain it, just as a
geologist could talk about the Paleozoic era or Devonian period with other
geologists. Computer engineers can safely refer to bytes, bauds, and packet
switching-among themselves. Communication between experts would be ponderous
if not impossible if they had no specialized jargon. Moreover, each year
technical language increases greatly as scientific knowledge increases;
thousands of technical terms used today were unknown just a few years ago.

Sometimes you will find that common words take on new meanings when
used by experts. Charge, conductor, mole, and mouse are just
four examples. Printers (the people, not the machines) mean something quite
different than most of us would when they refer to widows and leading.
As engineers you know and use all sorts of technical jargon. Some you share
with most engineers, some with those in the same general field of engineering
as you-such as chemical, civil, or aerospace-and some you would use only
among peers in highly specialized fields like celestial mechanics or software
engineering.

There is only one way to avoid noise when using technical terminology:
know your audience. Make certain you are writing or speaking at
their level of comprehension, because if you're above their heads you will
be wasting your time and theirs. Explain terms whenever necessary; don't
risk confusing readers or losing them completely because they don't know
what you are talking about. Definitions within your text, examples, analogies,
or a good glossary are all useful tools for the technical writer who must
frequently communicate with less technically inclined audiences.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations are necessary in technical communication for the same
reason valid technical jargon is: they refer to concepts that would take
a great deal of time to spell out fully. It would be time-consuming and
boring for a computer expert to read Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided
Manufacturing several times (or hear it in a talk) when CAD/CAM
would do. However, you will create a lot of noise in your writing if you
use abbreviations your readers don't understand. Always spell abbreviations
out the first time you use them unless you know this would insult the intelligence
of your audience:

Then it goes into the ROM (Read-Only Memory).

To understand our billing process, you first need to know what a
British Thermal Unit (BTU) is.

Once you have defined an abbreviation you can normally expect your reader
to remember it. The exception to this would be if you are using some highly
complicated or unusual abbreviations throughout your document, in which
case you may need to remind readers more than once what the abbreviations
stand for, or provide a glossary they can refer to.

Initialisms and acronyms

Abbreviations can be subdivided into initialisms and acronyms.
Initialisms (sometimes called initializations) are formed by taking the
first letters from each word of an expression and pronouncing them as initials:
GPA, IBM, LED, UHF. Acronyms are also created from the first letters
or sounds of several words, but are pronounced as words: AIDS, FORTRAN,
NAFTA, NASA, RAM, ROM. Some acronyms become so well-known that they
are thought of as ordinary words and written in lower case: bit, laser,
pixel, radar, scuba, sonar.

Don't be surprised if you find a list of both initialisms and acronyms
lumped under the title ACRONYMS.Many engineering writers no longer
observe the distinction between the two, and call any abbreviation an acronym.
You probably shouldn't make an issue of it, especially if the writer is
your superior.

Two usage pointers:

1. Use the correct form of a/an before an initialism. No matter
what the first letter is, if it is pronounced with an initial vowel sound
(for example the letter M is pronounced "em") write an
before it:

an MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime)

an LED readout

an SRU pin

an ultrasonic frequency (but a UHF receiver )

Some abbreviations might fool you. Consider LEM (lunar excursion module)
for example. If the custom is to pronounce it as an initialism, L-E-M,
then you will have anLEM. If it is normally considered an
acronym (as one word), you will have a LEM.

2. Form the plural of acronyms and initializations by adding a lower-case
s. Only put an apostrophe between the abbreviation and the s
if you are indicating a possessive form:

We ordered three CRTs.

We were not satisfied with the last CD-ROM's performance.

or

We were not satisfied with the performance on the last CD-ROM.

Numbers

Engineering means working with numbers a great deal. Frequently this
is where a lot of written noise occurs due to typos, incorrect or inexact
numbers, and inconsistencies. Obviously you can avoid serious noise by
making certain any number you write is accurate. You should also give numbers
to the necessary degree of precision: know whether 54.18543 is needed in
your report or whether 54.2 will do. Avoid noise from inconsistent use
of numbers by following these guidelines:

1. Numbers can be expressed as words (twelve) or numerals (12). Cardinal
numbers are one, two, three, etc. Ordinal numbers are first,
second, third, etc. Although custom varies, it's a good idea to write
the cardinal numbers from one to ten as words and all other numbers as
figures.

two transistors 232 stainless steel bolts

three linear actuators 12 capacitors

However, when more than one number appears in a sentence, write them
all the same:

The IPET has 4000 members and 134 chapters in 6 regions.

Also, use numerals rather than words when citing time, money, or measurements:

1 a.m. $5.48 12.4 m 18 ft

2. Spell out ordinal numbers only if they are single words. Write the
rest as numerals plus the last two letters of the ordinal:

second harmonic 21st element

fourteenth attempt 73rd cycle

3. If a number begins a sentence, it's a good idea to spell it out regardless
of any other rule.

Thirty-two computers were manufactured today.

To avoid writing out a large number at the beginning of a sentence,
rewrite the sentence so it doesn't begin with a number:

Last year, 5198 computers were manufactured in this division.

NOTE: You may sometimes see very large numbers written with spaces
where you usually put commas. Thus 10,354,978 might appear as 10 354 978.
This is to avoid any possible confusion with the practice in some countries
of using commas as decimal markers. Decide which method you want to use
based on your company's preference and/or your audience.

4. Form the plural of a numeral by adding an s, with no apostrophe:

80s 1920s

Make a written number plural by adding s, es, or by dropping
the y and adding ies:

nines sixes

fours nineties

5. Place a zero before the decimal point for numbers less than one.
Omit all trailing zeros unless they are needed to indicate precision.

0.345 cm 12.00 ft

0.5 A 19.40 tons

6. Write fractions as numerals when they are joined by a whole number.
Connect the whole number and the fraction by a hyphen:

2-1/2 liters 32-2/3 km

7. Time can be written out when not followed by a.m. or p.m., but you
will normally need to be more precise than this. Use numerals to express
time in hours and minutes when followed by a.m. and p.m. or when recording
data. Universal Time (UTC, from the French for universal coordinated
time) uses the 24-hour clock.

ten o'clock 10:41 a.m. 8:45
p.m.

4 hours 36 minutes 12 seconds 23:41
(= 11:41 p.m.)

8. When expressing very large or small numbers, use scientific notation.
Some numbers are easily read when expressed in either standard or scientific
form. Choose the best format and be consistent:

0.0538 m or 5.38 x 10-2 m

8.32 x 10-21 m/s but 367 345 199 m/s

Units of Measurement

Although the public in the United States is still not committed to the
metric system, you will find that in general the engineering profession
is. Two versions of the metric system exist, but the more modern one, the
SI (from French Système International), is preferred. The vital
rule is to be consistent. Don't mix English and metric units unless you
are forced to. Be sure to use the commonly accepted abbreviation or symbol
for a unit if you do not write out the complete word, and leave a space
between the numeral and the unit.

70 ns 100 dB 12
V 34.62 m 23
e/cm3 6 Wb/m2

Many people, including technically trained ones, still think in standard
or English units of measurement, so sometimes you may find it advisable
to give both referents in your writing. As with many other editorial matters,
you can only make this decision after thinking of your readers' needs.
When it might be advisable to add "explanatory" units, as with
a mixed audience, do so by writing them in parentheses after the primary
units:

212 oF (100 oC)

5.08 cm (2 in)

Make sure you use the correct symbol when referring to units of measurement,
and remember that sometimes similar symbols can stand for more than one
thing. A great deal of noise would result if you confused the following,
for example:

oC (degrees Celsius)
C (coulomb-unit of electric charge)

g (gram)
G (gauss- measure of magnetic induction)

m (thousandth)
M (million)

s (second-as in time)
S (siemens-unit of conductance)

G (gauss)
G (gravity)
G (giga-)

Units of measurement derived from a person's name usually are not capitalized,
even if the abbreviation for the unit is. Note also that although the name
can take a plural form, an s is not added to the abbreviation to
make it plural:

amperes A farads F henrys
H

kelvins K newtons N volts
V webers Wb

When working with very large or very small units of measurement you
will need to be familiar with the designated SI expressions and prefixes:

Factor Prefix Symbol

1018 exa-
E

1015 peta-
P

1012 tera-
T

109 giga-
G

106 mega-
M

103 kilo-
k

102 hecto-
h

101 deka-
da

10-1 deci-
d

10-2 centi-
c

10-3 milli-
m

10-6 micro-
m

10-9 nano-
n

10-12 pico-
p

10-15 femto-
f

10-18 atto-
a

A recent dictionary of scientific terms will guide you if you are unsure
of the correct spellings or symbols of the units you are using.There is no point in using them in your writing, however, if you
or your audience don't know what they mean. Symbols and abbreviations are
indispensable to an engineer, but use them sparingly when writing for an
audience other than your peers. You may sometimes need to define the ones
you use, either in your text parenthetically (a brief explanation in parentheses
following the term or symbol, like this) or with annotations:

P = I E (1)

where

P = power, measured in watts

E = EMF (electromotive force) in volts

I = current in amperes

Equations

It would be hard to do much engineering without equations. They communicate
ideas far more efficiently than words at times-consider the ideas represented
by E = mc2 for example. However, formulas and equations
slow down your reader, so use them only when necessary and when certain
your audience can follow them.

Many word-processing programs now make it easy to write equations in
text, but if you have to write them in longhand do so with care to ensure
both accuracy and legibility. An illegible or ambiguous equation is hardly
going to communicate data effectively, and an error in an equation could
be disastrous. In other words, make sure your equations are noise-free.

You should normally center equations on your page and number them sequentially
in parentheses to the right for reference. Leave a space between your text
and any equation, and between lines of equations. Also, space on both sides
of operators such as =, +, or -. If you have more than one equation in
your document, try to keep the equal signs and reference numbers parallel
throughout:

F(x) = _logx dx (1)

H(s) (xv2) = X(s)/Y(s) (2)

Eventually you may have to incorporate multiline equations into your
technical papers and reports, where they will read (and should be punctuated)
just like sentences.

EDIT, EDIT, EDIT

If you look at the early handwritten drafts of some of the greatest
writers' works you'll see alterations, additions, deletions, and other
squiggles that indicate how much revision went into the draft before it
became a finished work. We could all produce better written documents if
we always

1. had the time to edit our work carefully

2. took the trouble to edit our work carefully

For an engineer, time is frequently going to be a problem. You can't
always find time for a leisurely edit of your work. However, you would
still be ill-advised to send a first draft of anything of importance to
your readers. A quick e-mail note to a friend about lunch isn't worth much
concern, but anything more than this, especially if it's going beyond your
immediate colleagues, needs at least to be looked over briefly with an
editorial eye. How much time you invest in editing should be in direct
proportion to the importance of the document. Use all the assistance your
word processor will give you, including any spelling, grammar, or readability
programs you may have, but don't follow their suggestions blindly. You
have to be the final arbiter on the clarity and effectiveness of your
work-your name will be on the document, not your word processor's
manufacturer.

Editing At Different Levels

Rather than read over their finished document once or twice in hopes
of randomly finding anything in need of improvement, many writers like
to take a more methodical approach to editing. You might want to try this.
First, check your document for TECHNICAL ACCURACY. Then decide what "writing
levels" to approach your editing on, and go through your document
at least once on each level. Level 1 might be the highest level of the
document, where you check the overall format, organization, and appearance.
Is the work arranged the way it should be? Are specifications (if any)
followed? Is it the right length? Have you used the best font size, margins,
and spacing? Are headings, subheadings, lists, and graphics used effectively?

Level 2 will involve looking at such things as paragraph and sentence
length and structure, possible verbiage, and precise word choice. Is the
tone of your document appropriate? Have you used the active voice where
possible? How about transitions, parallelism, and emphasis where called
for?

The final level, Level 3, is the nitty-gritty one of mechanics, spelling,
punctuation-all the basics we were supposed to master in elementary and
high school. As mentioned above, a good word processing program will provide
you with suggestions on spelling and grammar; however, you must
make the final choices on many of these options.

Collaborative Editing

There is nothing wrong with having a colleague, friend, or spouse look
over your writing before you submit it to its intended audience. Two heads
are usually better than one for discovering flaws in a piece of writing,
and you are no longer in a freshman English class where such help might
be considered plagiarism. In industry, experts often cooperate in writing
technical reports, proposals, and other documents. Most lengthy documents
are produced by team effort, where different team members use their particular
strengths to ensure that the document is the best it possibly can be.

Collaborative editing, then, can involve something as simple as asking
a friend for his or her opinion of the organization, clarity, and mechanics
of your work, and using those comments to improve your writing where necessary.
The more skilled and frank your friend is, the better. With a long document,
however, collaborative editing can be done by having different team members
check the document at different levels, which is usually better than having
everyone searching for whatever they can find at all three levels at once.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1993.